Give Your Child a 700 Credit Score

Summary

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Podcast Summary: "Give Your Child a 700 Credit Score"

Podcast: Earn Your Leisure
Hosts: Rashad Bilal & Troy Millings
Guest: Credit Expert
Date: June 16, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode of Earn Your Leisure dives deep into the importance of credit education and how parents can set up their children for financial success from an early age. Rashad, Troy, and their guest—an experienced credit expert—discuss practical steps for building both personal and business credit, debunk myths about trade lines, and explain the tools and institutions (like Dun & Bradstreet) that are essential for entrepreneurs and families alike. The focus is on shifting generational thinking around credit and empowering listeners with actionable strategies.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Building Credit Early for Your Children

[03:09–05:16]

• Start Early: Parents can add children as authorized users on credit cards at 16, laying the groundwork for a high credit score by age 18.

  • "If parents start adding their kids at 16, when they're 18, they already have a 750, 800." (Credit Expert, 03:22)

• Practical Birthday Gift: Instead of traditional gifts, add your teenager to your credit card, teaching them financial responsibility early.

  • "That should be the birthday gift. Hey, let me add you to a credit card, give it to you, start learning how to use it." (Credit Expert, 03:58)

• Eliminate Dependence on Trade Lines and Cosigners: Early credit history empowers young adults to get apartments, cars, or business credit independently.

  Memorable Moment: Comparing the generational shift—what used to be a secret or a favor (like a grandma or parents adding you on their card) should now become standard practice.

  • Host 2: "Parents be, be responsible though. That's number one. Be responsible with your credit because like you said, this could definitely help your children." (05:10)

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2. Demystifying Business Credit vs. Personal Credit

[05:17–08:18]

• Personal Credit: Tied to your Social Security Number; builds with responsible use of personal credit products.

• Business Credit: Built under a tax ID (EIN) for legitimate business structures (LLC, C Corp, S Corp). Sole proprietors usually still use their personal credit.

  • "A lot of people think when they have a sole proprietorship... they really don't [have a business credit profile] because you're still using your social." (Credit Expert, 05:49)

• Personal Guarantees: Many “business” cards (e.g., Amex, Chase) still require a personal guarantee, exposing your personal credit if you default.

  • "To get a true business credit card... is by not having to use your social and just by using your tax ID and maybe your Dun and Bradstreet." (Credit Expert, 07:11)

• The Hybrid Model: Many major business cards report to both personal and business credit bureaus.

  Memorable Quote:

  • "If you have an American Express and you don't pay it for a certain amount of time and it gets charged off, now that business credit card... is going to go straight to charge off status... now you're going to go from having a 720 credit score to now having a 20, $30,000 charge off." (Credit Expert, 07:13)

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3. Understanding Dun & Bradstreet and the DUNS Number

[08:18–10:21]

• Dun & Bradstreet (D&B): The main business credit reporting agency.
  • "Dun and Bradstreet is kind of like the biggest business credit reporting agency out there." (Credit Expert, 08:27)
• DUNS Number: Free to obtain; acts like a business’s “social security number” for credit purposes.
• Reporting Differences: Business credit has multiple bureaus (D&B, Experian Business, Equifax Business). Different vendors may report to different bureaus.
• Application Tips: Don’t pay extra for a DUNS number or overhyped monitoring services.
  • "It's free, doesn't cost you anything. You shouldn't be paying anybody to get you a Dun and Bradstreet number." (Credit Expert, 08:38)

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4. How to Get Business Credit Without a Personal Guarantee

[10:21–11:22]

• Time in Business Matters: Under two years in business? Most lenders require a personal guarantee.
• Alternatives:
  • Gas cards and some local credit union business cards may not require your social security number after a history is established.
  • Gas/branded cards are a “hidden secret” for building true business credit.
    • "Gas cards are. Are the hidden secret of. Of business credit." (Credit Expert, 11:26)

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• "If parents start adding their kids at 16, when they're 18, they already have a 750, 800."
  — Credit Expert, [03:22]
• "That should be the birthday gift. Hey, let me add you to a credit card..."
  — Credit Expert, [03:58]
• "A lot of people think when they have a sole proprietorship...they really don't [have business credit] because you're still using your social."
  — Credit Expert, [05:49]
• "Gas cards are. Are the hidden secret of. Of business credit."
  — Credit Expert, [11:26]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [03:09] – Introduction to early credit building for kids
• [05:17] – Personal vs. business credit, the need for EINs, and how guarantees work
• [08:18] – What is Dun & Bradstreet and why DUNS numbers matter
• [10:21] – How to obtain business credit cards without a personal guarantee
• [11:26] – The secret value of gas cards for business credit

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Conclusion

The episode offers a powerful blueprint for families and entrepreneurs to change their financial destiny. By starting young, leveraging authorized user status, and understanding the mechanics of business credit and institutions like Dun & Bradstreet, parents can "give their child a 700 credit score" and unlock a lifetime of financial opportunity. The friendly, can-do tone of the discussion makes these advanced strategies accessible for anyone ready to take control of their credit journey.

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Transcript

[Credit Expert]

This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human earners.

[Host 1]

What's up?

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[Karen from My Favorite Murder]

Hi, it's Karen and Georgia from My Favorite Murder. We cruised around LA in the Hyundai Ionic 5 and dove into the fascinating life of actress and inventor Hedy Lamarr.

[Georgia from My Favorite Murder]

Want the full story?

[Karen from My Favorite Murder]

Take a listen. She starts dating Howard Hughes and in fact, she helps him design a faster plane. So she finds the fastest bird and and the fastest fish and sketches out a drawing of what the two would look like as a plane. And that becomes the plane that we know today. And he calls her a genius. Check out our new episode spotlighting groundbreaking innovators like Hedy and Lamarr and Billie Jean King. Presented by the Hyundai Ioniq 5. Goodbye.

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[Host 2]

mind, right, we got a lot of people and it's like as soon as you get to college, you know, in the reason they, they sent you those right before you went off, but in college they're giving you credit cards right off the rip. Is this something that young entrepreneurs could actually take advantage of?

[Karen from My Favorite Murder]

No.

[Credit Expert]

I would say as soon as you're 18, if, if, if. To let you know, I'm trying to change the way that people think of a credit and start applying for credit. So if parents start adding their kids at 16, when they're 18, they already have a 750, 800.

[Host 1]

Yeah, talk about that. I saw that on Instagram. You was like 16. Yeah. Can you explain that?

[Credit Expert]

Yep. So. Because it kind of goes in hand with your question. So it's like if, if you, if you have kids that are, that are under 18 and at least 16, you can add them to your credit card just like how I think we said your grandmother, right?

[Host 2]

My mom.

[Credit Expert]

Your mom. Your mom added you to your card.

[Host 1]

Yeah.

[Credit Expert]

At 18 you got all that history. But if she would have added you at 16 when you turned 18, now you have at least two years of an active credit report. Because this is the thing, your credit report doesn't exist until something happens on there, your credit report. You're eight years old, you don't have a credit report. You know what I mean? So if you're 16 and your parents add you and mom and dad each add you to a credit card, that should be the birthday gift. Hey, let me add you to a credit card, give it to you, start learning how to use it. You know what I mean? Now when you become 18 now you can get your own American Express, your own thing. Now you don't need these. And what else don't you need? Trade lines. Because what a lot of people that the reason, once again, I'm going to talk about trade lines a lot.

[Host 2]

Not a big fan.

[Credit Expert]

You know what I mean? Because people use trade lines because they want the history and the limits. So start at a younger age. So now when you're 18, you already know now I don't need those trade lines. I already got my own credit cards. And now you're just starting it to where when you're in college, now your parents are going to open up an LLC for you, open up this, do whatever. And now you can use your own credit. You don't have to have a cosigner for a car, for an apartment, for anything. And now we're changing the trajectory of when people apply, but how they apply and more importantly, why they apply.

[Host 2]

Yeah, parents be, be responsible though. That's number one. Be responsible with your credit because like you said, this could definitely help your children.

[Credit Expert]

Yep.

[Host 1]

So let me ask you this. All right, so business credit, let's get into this. What are the steps? I know, I wrote down some notes. So you, you have to have a legit business obviously tax id. So explain the difference. Can you explain the difference between business credit, personal credit and then I guess it's a hybrid situation like you said, Amex is technically, is not full business credit because they still use your personal guarantee. Yeah. So what is the difference between like the Amex situation where you still got to have a personal guarantee and just full fledged business credit?

[Credit Expert]

Yep. So you know, your personal credit, you use your social. Right. Social Security number. When you start a business, you get your, you know, whether it's a llc, a C Corp. S corp, whatever the case is, you start a business and you get your tax ID now you're actually a business. And I want people to understand that because a lot of people think when they have a sole proprietorship, but they have a business, they really don't because you're still using your social. So you have to get a tax id and once you start building business credit, depending on what you're going for, you're going to have to use your personal credit.

[Sean Duffy]

Right.

[Credit Expert]

So there's a difference between co signing a personal guarantee, which you guys spoke about before, you know, if you're personally guaranteeing something, you're using that to kind of like get approved for it. Right. So with a personal guarantee on an American Express credit card, for instance, unless you're like a major corporation like Facebook, Walmart, whatever the case is, you're not getting American Express without using your social, even though you have your tax ID too, now you're using your Personal credit as leverage to, to ultimately get that American Express, the chase and everything else. So the reason why I say it's not true business credit, even though it does report to Experian business, is that you still gotta use your personal credit for it, which is not bad. But in the event that you default, like you don't pay it and it gets charged off, now it gets reported to your personal credit.

[Host 2]

If you default on the business card, it goes back to.

[Credit Expert]

Yeah. So if you have an American Express and you don't pay it for a certain amount of time and it gets charged off, now that business credit card is not going to show up as a late payment. It's going to go straight to charge off status. And now you're going to go from having a 720 credit score to now having a 20, $30,000 charge off American Express credit card from the business. And to get that off, you got to, you know, you got to pay it. You know what I mean? You don't want to evade that debt because now it's tied to your business. You know what I mean? To get a true business credit card or anything with business credit is by not having to use your social and just by using your tax ID and maybe your Dun and Bradstreet, which I know we're going to cover. You know what I mean? So that's true. Business credit is not using your Social Security number, your date of birth, your name, anything, and all you're using is got credit, your tax id, your ein, I mean, your address, business, you know, business email, business phone number, and that's it. You know what I mean? That's the true business credit. But when American Express would chase you know, those credit cards, you're still going to have to use it even though it's still going to report to your business credit.

[Host 2]

Got you, Got you. So you spoke about D and B. Can you explain what it is, why it's so important and why people, especially in business, should know their number?

[Credit Expert]

Yep. So Dun and Bradstreet is another, like, I guess you can say social. So notice for personal credit, all you have is one. For business credit, there's like multiple things you got to do to establish business credit. It's not easy. So Dun and Bradstreet is kind of like the biggest business credit reporting agency out there. And if you're trying to get like a car, if you're trying to get like net 30 accounts, if you're trying to get things like American Express, they all check. Dun and Bradstreet and they give you what's called a DUNS number. So if you want to just create a DUNS number, you just go to Dun and Bradstreet's website. It's free, doesn't cost you anything. You shouldn't be paying anybody to get you a Dun and Bradstreet number. It's free. So now what it is is people will report what you're doing to Dun and Bradstreet because they have to house that information somewhere. So that way if you want to get a car, if you want to get something in the future and eventually not use a personal guarantee, that's what they're going to check. You're done in Bradstreet credit report. You know what I mean?

[Host 2]

So they're logging the data, right?

[Credit Expert]

They're logging the data. So it's like now your American Express is not being reported to Dun and Bradstreet, though, is being reported to Experian Business. So it's, you know, there's Equifax Business, Experian Business and Dun and Bradstreet. Just like how with the three, there's Experian, TransUnion and Equifax. So there's three with this one and there's even more, but those are the main three, you know, I mean, so now with Dun and Bradstreet, now you're also given a number that now when you apply for something on a business credit report, they're like, what's your Duns number? And a lot of people don't know that. Like what, what are you even talking about? So now they go to Dun and Brass Hughes number. They got to buy one and then they try to sell them this crazy software, this crazy monitoring and they don't need that. You know what I mean? So eventually, once you start building business credit, all you got to apply for is with your business name, your tax ID and your gun and Bradstreet and it doesn't get reported anywhere. God forbid you default on it. You're protecting your personal credit.

[Host 1]

So if I want to get a business credit card without personally guaranteed, where would I go to for that?

[Credit Expert]

So it depends on what type of business credit card you're trying to get. Because a lot of, especially if you're in business under two years, you're not going to get it because you haven't built history.

[Host 1]

So you got to use the personal guarantee, right?

[Credit Expert]

There might be some out, you know, there's like, you know, once you start building revenue and you start, you can show tax returns and you can show IDs. Like, there's some local credit unions that you can get a business credit card without it. And then there's also like some other business, like, like a gas card. Right. So this is one of the things that we tell people is a gas card actually has a lot of value in it because you can get an American. I mean, a visa or a MasterCard business credit card that you don't have to put your social on it.

[Host 1]

Yeah.

[Credit Expert]

You know what I mean? And those Visa MasterCard business credit cards are powerful because, yeah, it's tied to a gas station, but It's a Visa MasterCard. So now what you're doing is you're building your Visa MasterCard business credit so that way you could eventually get a credit card without it.

[Host 2]

Yeah. A wise woman spoke to us about gas cards. Shout out to Ms. Business.

[Credit Expert]

Gas cards are. Are the hidden secret of. Of business credit. My graduates from my school being Forbes

[Host 1]

Bag drop Bag drop Mic drop bag.

[Advertiser/Promoter]

Earners. What's up? Look, building wealth isn't just about making money. It's about knowing where your money is working for you. That's why we partner with Empower. Empower is all about helping you invest well so you can go out and live a little. Their free Empower Personal Dashboard gives you a complete view of your financial life in one place. Track your net worth, monitor your budget, analyze your investments, set retirement goals, and more. You've worked hard for your money, now make sure it's working hard for you. Download the Empower Personal dashboard or visit empower.com not an Empower client, paid or sponsored.

[Sean Duffy]

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[Karen from My Favorite Murder]

Hi, it's Karen and Georgia from My Favorite Murder. We cruised around LA in the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and dove into the fascinating life of actress and inventor Hedy Lamarr.

[Georgia from My Favorite Murder]

Want the full story?

[Karen from My Favorite Murder]

Take a listen. She starts dating Howard Hughes, and in fact, she helps him design a faster plane. So she finds the fastest bird and the fastest fish and sketches out a drawing of what the two would look like as a plane. And that becomes the plane that we know today. And he calls her a genius. Check out our new episode spotlighting groundbreaking innovators like Hedy and Lamarr and Billie Jean King presented by the Hyundai Ioniq 5.

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[Georgia from My Favorite Murder]

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[Credit Expert]

Guaranteed human.